Orisa Now Available in Overwatch Plus Other Character Updates

21. Mar, 2017

The newest Overwatch Hero, Orisa, is now available on PS4, PC and Xbox One. Orisa is a tank class character with a support style Ultimate that is likely to make her a popular hero in the competitive meta. Blizzard announced Orisa a couple weeks ago, making her available on the PC test servers before her official launch on consoles today.

Along with Orisa, Blizzard also made changes to other characters, some of which can be considered major specifically for Sombra players and Bastion haters.

Ana
Biotic Rifle – Damage decreased from 80 to 60

Developer Comments: Ana’s kit has several strong components, which makes her difficult to replace. Reducing her damage output will make her less threatening on attack and reduce her dueling capabilities.

Developer Comments: After the last update, Bastion became a little too difficult to deal with, so we’re reducing his new passive to give enemies more opportunities to counter.

Junkrat
Total Mayhem – Junkrat’s explosion no longer hurt himself

Developer Comments: Previously, Junkrat’s projectile speed made him difficult to use at long ranges, but the damage he took from his own explosions made him difficult to use at close ranges. This change makes him more effective at close ranges, allowing Junkrat players to explore new strategies.

Mercy
Caduceus Staff – The amount of increased damage that’s done when boosting another player is now tracked under the match statistics and on the Career Profile page

Sombra
Hack -Sombra’s teammates can now see hacked healthpacks through walls
Stealth -Sound effects and VO distance has been reduced to 15 meters when Sombra enters or exits Stealth
Translocator – Cooldown reduced from 6 seconds to 4 seconds

Developer Comments: Sombra can be devastating in the right hands, but infiltrating and harassing enemies could often feel difficult. These changes should increase her effectiveness and teamplay.

Winston
Barrier Projector – Ability cooldown now starts when the barrier is placed, instead of when it ends

Developer Comments: This change should help Winston do what he does best: distract the enemy team and block damage.

Developer Comments: This is actually reverting a change that we made a few patches ago, which made players immune to knockbacks if they were hit by an effect from inside her barrier. This had some negative side effects, such as making targets immune to knockbacks from effects that pierce barriers, like Reinhardt’s charge and Winston’s Primal Rage punches. Now, these will cause knockback again. This does not affect knockbacks from effects that originate from outside her barriers, such as Pharah’s Concussive Blast. Those will still be blocked by the barriers, not causing any knockback.

Zenyatta
Orb of Destruction – Alternate fire cooldown has been reduced from 1 seconds to 0.6 seconds
Weapon spread has been removed

Developer Comments: Zenyatta’s alternate fire often felt too difficult to use due to its long recovery time. This reduction should make it a more viable option. Also, his weapon has always had a very small amount of spread. This wasn’t enough to change the way he was played, but it would occasionally cause shots to miss that would normally hit their target. Removing this small variance should help him feel more consistent.

For those eager to play as Orisa, she will be available in every mode except for Competitive for the first week. This is a move Blizzard likes to do to allow players to get to know a new character before jumping into the more serious Competitive.

Just a nerd from the Windy City. I’m actually really bad at describing myself because I get all self-critical and self-conscious. Follow me on Twitter, @The1stMJC, to see my borderline insane rants on tv shows and other non important subjects. If I’m not tweeting I’m probably just watching Buffy or Firefly for the millionth time.